Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: AMEND (11/02/23)
-
TITLE: Wanna take it to court? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
11/09/23 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
As the light turned green, I accelerated as the young man attempted to see through my passenger-side window with his flashlight. Then I realized he was a cop and that he wasn't alone. Another was peering into the drivers' windows on the other side of the two lanes. Not even an eighth of a mile along the road, in a bank parking lot, were a patrol car, a police motorcycle, and numerous cops flagging down vehicles and issuing tickets.
The moment I got home, I went to my computer and immediately googled, ‘Can cops look into cars that are being driven?’ The consensus, based on the Fourth Amendment, was ‘No.’ A cop must execute an actual traffic stop in order to conduct a search. It appeared, by what I had seen, that the cops trying to peer into car windows were on a fishing expedition, perhaps trying to catch someone on a cell phone or not wearing their seatbelt.
The following morning, I phoned our local police department. A captain finally took my call, and I shared what I had seen the night before.
“Ma’am, if you’re driving down a road in a vehicle with transparent windows, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. The officers were conducting seatbelt checks, and the cars were in public view.”
“That’s not what the Fourth Amendment says,” I countered.
There was an uneasy silence on the other end of the line.
“I’m not an attorney,” I continued, “but it appears that the definition of public view requires clarification. Assume I stood on a street corner and shone a flashlight into people’s cars. I'm very sure I'd get in trouble, if not arrested because I had to use something to see into people's cars, and what I saw wasn’t in plain sight. The officer was in the same boat. Even though the street was well-lit, he couldn't see into the cars. Using a flashlight shifted the focus from ‘public view’ to searching for a violation. I just don’t see how that is acceptable.”
“Ma’am…”
“I’m not done! You also say, ‘There is no reasonable expectation of privacy.’ Where is that line drawn? Flashing a light in someone’s window appears to cross it because, again, the officer is deliberately and forcibly invading my privacy by beaming that light into my window. If the officer was driving alongside me, glanced over, and noticed I was not wearing my seatbelt, then by all means, pull me over and cite me. But this was a fishing expedition, one where the officer was, figuratively speaking, using a stick of dynamite to catch fish.”
“I’m sorry you feel this way,” the Captain said as I wound down my tirade.
“My feelings have nothing to do with this. It’s an invasion of privacy. Answer me this: does the Chief of Police know what your local station is doing? He might agree with you or not. Are you willing to risk it? I’m pretty sure if I called any of the big-name traffic attorneys whose billboards are all up and down the freeway, they’d be really interested in your department’s interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. Wanna take it to court?”
He stammered a few more phrases before abruptly hanging up.
I’ve never seen an officer on that street corner again.
_____________________________________________________
Non-fiction
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
